The Family Portrait
by Linkmaste
Summary: The story of how an infamous family portrait came to be. Saga Universe, LindyxIan. Short Story Complete.
1. Prologue

The Family Portrait

A Short Story by Linkmaste

Disclaimer: Don't own Digimon or anything. Don't sue. Do lawyers really read this stuff?

Authors Note: Just another little peak into Ian and Lindy (I'm still editing. Just hit a hard spot with the editing.) Writing style and personality change so I'm debating on preserving the originality of the story compared to updating it with my style. Just stupid stuff. Enjoy.

Prologue

A picture is worth a thousand words. It is not a novel or an essay that can have a single word depicting a single meaning. It is fluid, emotional, and can take on a thousand perspectives.

Take a family portrait for example. A perfect family with two children (one boy and one girl) with a beautiful mother who cooks home made meals everyday, and a father who works a steady 9-5, vacation, great pay, and wears a suit. Hair is combed, teeth are brushed, clothes are pressed. Smiles are all around. Everything is...perfect.

Another family portrait for example can include this: A young mother who has a messy bun and forgot to put her makeup on. She is covered in mashed peas and carrot noticeable with the stain on her soccer shirt and forehead (that her husband forgot to mention as the photo was taken). She does not cook home made meals everyday, nor does she have the latest outfits or whitens her teeth. It is probably stained with coffee which she has grown an addiction to after having her children. The father has burn marks on his body, and some of his shirt is still smoking. He has a bruise on his forehead and looks exhausted. No suit. No 9-5, and defiantly has not seen a vacation in a long time. Finally, the children themselves are a baby and a toddler. One is a boy who has his shirt on backwards, and some kind of stain on his face. The baby is covered in mashed peas and carrots while showing a smile probably saying "Hey, I shit my pants. I know you can smell me, so you better damn change me as soon as possible before I shriek and make you run for your Advil again. Sorry about your luck."

But this picture has something else. There is still smiles all around and these were, instead of tight and rehearsed, true and full of mirth and laughter. In fact, the young parents-hybrids to be exact were laughing. Laughing at the nuances that trailed them in that morning leading up to the picture because no matter what, family sticks together.

This is the story of how that picture came to be.


	2. Chapter 1

Chapter One

Shit. Shit. Shit. I thought as I ran through the rooms. Bedroom, bathroom, living room, kitchen. Shit.

I can't find my blouse, where is it? I remember placing it on the bed as I fed Iris the other day...was that Tuesday? No, today is Saturday...I think.

I looked everywhere for it but to my dismay it was no where to be seen. I walked past a mirror and stopped taking a look at myself. I barely recognized myself since I looked tired, no makeup, my messy hair up, and I was wearing sweats and a old soccer shirt with holes in it. To be honest, I don't think I'm wearing a bra. God, I need a shower.

But, two things are preventing me from doing that. Well, three are to be honest. My blouse, Leon and Iris.

No one told me or Impy how hard it was going to be parents. I know there was the lack of sleep, and the crying. But no one told us that having hybrid children was going to be a whole new level of parenting. A normal parent does not have to watch out for a toddler's tail thrashing about-knocking down everything. A normal parent does not have to put out fires on a daily routine.

Thank God for my husband for helping me. Since we took up positions on a council we get a lot of time off since we only meet up once every week. I take e-mails and calls, Impy runs to the Digital World to sort out anything potentially threatening.

Gosh, has it been so long since we went on our last adventure? I thought looking at a old photo of our whole group. Both the Japan and Canadian tamers all gathered with the Angels, Demons and the Knights.

Oh well, life does go on.

"Honey, have you seen my blouse?" I asked walking into the kitchen again. I saw my soulamte in his human form trying to feed our daughter mashed peas and carrots again. Typical. She hates that one. From the looks of my daughters puffed up face, he was getting the hint.

"Toots, we have been over this. we ain't matchin'. It's retarded." I frowned.

"Hon, not the r-word. It's in the book of words we should not say."

He rolled his green eyes at me and gave me a look. I know, it was stupid but I refuse to raise our kids cursing words in public! I should be getting an award for this, not hassle!

"And I thought it would be perfect for the family to match." I explained sitting down next to him. "It would be cute."

"Cute?" Ian set the mini spoon down and tossed a few puffs to Iris who ate them. "This is not cute toots. In fact, I don't even know what to call this. I don't remember the last time I slept. I love the kids but they are driving me insane."

"That is part of the job description," I smiled grabbing a coffee and sipped it. Mmm, caffine. "We have to be crazy, then we can be officially labelled as parents." I hugged Ian and gave him a soft peck on the cheek. "Just a rough patch, nothing we can't handle."

"Yeah, yeah. Tell it to the squirt over here. Toots, why can't we just feed her the puffs, she's so much happier with 'em." Ian pleaded.

I sighed. We have been fighting a lot lately based on money, the kids, work, and especially this family portrait idea I have. He says it is not our style to do this  
"yuppie" life. But I explained (well, I kinda shouted and cried) that since I never had one in my family, I think we should have one now so the kids can look back and have a nice memory. At the mention of my parents, he kinds toned it down. It has been years since my parents rejected me and threw me away but I'm still wounded over it. They don't even know about their grandchildren I don't think.

After that, he was kinda good about the portrait thing. But the line was at matching outfits.

Suddenly, Iris cries and smears her food on her face. I heard her cries and soothed her telling her it is alright. She was such a fussy child, always crying and not eating. However, no signs of being a Digimon yet. Maybe she will be completely human.

"Have you seen Leon?" Ian grumbled trying to scoop another spoonful of mush to Iris. "You know we should not leave the kid alone too long."

Leon. Our first son was wonderful, loved to talk and play and meet new people and Digimon. However, he had his father's devil like personality. He has been ofically nicknamed "The devil prince" by Terriermon after one horrible babysit affair when we went out for a anniversary trip. Basically, we learned that Leon can set fire to pretty much anything he wanted to. So, we kept an eye out and scolded him whenever he set fire. We were going to start teaching him how to control it when he turned four.

I heard thuds coming down the stairs and I saw my son walk down (with the assistance of the railing of course) in his outfit. Not just any outfit. _His_ outfit. The Luigi outfit that Jeri bought for him a week ago. He has not changed out of it for three days and I was afraid this was going to happen. Here we go.

"Leon sweetie, didn't we talk about changing into new clothes?" I gave a bright smile and knelt down to the young boy. His blonde hair and green eyes were exactly like his father. He looked down at his outfit and grinned.

"Luigi!"

"Yes sweetie," I began and started to undo the buttons. "Luigi is a great guy but you are starting to smell and we need to change your clothes."

"NOOOOOO!" he cried trying to throw off my hand. His tail curled and I prepared for him trying to chomp on my hand. I smacked him.

"No Leon! What have I told you about biting people? Mommy does not like to be bitten." I scolded him. On cue, Leon started to wail. I already felt a head ache coming on.

"Leon!" Began Ian leaning his chair back so he can see his son. Oh good, Ian was going to handle the discipline for Leon this time. "Listen to your mother."

That bastard. He took the easy way out.

I felt heat at my knees as Leon started to become quiet and concentrated on making a fire happen at my knees. I smacked him again.

"No fires. Five minutes in the corner."

I placed Leon in his chair in the corner of the dining room and he folded his arms.

"I don't want to go in the corner!"

"When you stop making fires, you will stop going to the corner." I replied. Leon sucked on his thumb and I stood up. I looked at the house. It was a mess. Papers everwhere, some left over pizza from two nights ago, various bottles for Iris, our wedding gift for Jeri and Takato's wedding coming up in a few weeks. It was expensive as hell but Jeri loves collecting these things and it was wedding themed. Ian was not too thrilled about it but I paid for it myself. He has zero complaining rights.

It was crystal with a few sapphires in the centre of the goblet. Engraved was Takato and Jeri's name into the goblet that sparkled. There was a Japanese character in the centre that depicted the original brand name.

I sighed. My cell phone rang and I picked it up after searching through the toys bin. It was Rike.

"Honey watch the kids." I called and ran upstairs to take the call. I hear Rika on the other side with the sound of cars and traffic.

"Hey Rika." I chimed.

"Hey yourself," she replied cooly. I cringe. You see, this was the fifth appointment that we made with her since we became so well with the camera (and the kids love her) but things kept comming up. From the house being a mess, Iris sick, an emergency with Ian (something about land discrepancy with the sovereigns) and I had a workshop for Canadian Tamers in Toronto the last time. Rika probably had enough patience.

"Rika today is the day! We have not cancelled!" I said sitting down on the bed. "No ones sick, no emergencies. We are good."

"Well, you better be! I set so many days aside for you and the imp." The red head replied on the phone. I heard her curse at someone. "No more excuses Lindy, I get being a mom is hard but this has to work."

"You're right. I'm sorry." I began. "There is no excuse for using you like that and blowing you off. Things here were so rocky and now I think the fighting has stopped."

"Is it bad?" Rika asked concerned. While everyone knew we fought, it was starting to show we had a lot more strings of fights than usual.

"We got through it." I replied. "See you in two hours?"

"On the dot. And Lindy?"

"Yes?"

"I do not care if the D-Reaper comes crashing in, we are taking this photo. Do you understand me?"

I assured Rika that the photo shoot will go on no matter what. As if anything could really go wrong today, I scoffed.

I hung up and went downstairs to grab Leon to change him into new clothes. As I turned the corner I looked into the dining room and did not see him. I looked around. Nothing. I went into the kitchen and saw Ian smiling at Iris. That's cute.

"Honey have you seen Leon?"

"No, did you put him in the corner?" he asked looking around.

"Yeah, but he left. I told you to watch him." I replied frowning. "Leon!"

I perked my ears. Being a hybrid I gained a pretty good sense of hearing for a noisy toddler who was now thumping up the stairs with a giggle. I felt something drop in my stomach. Oh no, what did he do?

"Toots," Ian started tugging on me. I looked at him and he pointed at the table. Or what was lacking from the table. The wedding gift. The expensive goblets for Jeri and Takato's wedding.

Shit.

I run up the stairs calling out Leon's name. Ian comes with me and we both check his bed room. No one there. I check the bathroom and Ian checks the bedroom. Nada.

"Where is he?" I muttered. "He does not have invisibility skills."

"LEON!" I heard Ian cry and I saw him through one of the windows on the second flood. He was climbing on our backyard tree that was accessible through one of the windows and started to play with the goblets.

We bolted to the window and beckoned him to come. Of course in Leon style he blew a raspberry at us. I growled and started to climb on the tree. It creaked and I realized that I was too heavy.

"I'm going." I said before Ian could say anything and changed into my Impmon form. Completely dark blue except for my sea green eyes and bandana and gloves I easily jumped on the tree and made my way to Leon. He laughed seeing me almost as big as him and clapped his hands.

"Play time! Play with me!" He cried and I frowned.

"No, Leon you are coming with me back inside the house."

"No!" Leon pouted. I was praying to God that he does not set this tree on fire. I flicked my tail in annoyance and grabbed his hand.

I should have been more careful as I saw Leon was losing his grip on the goblets. If those things broke...

"Ian the goblets!" I cried. Ian was much faster at changing into Impmon and saw it drop from Leon's hands...and fall towards the ground.

It was in slow motion that Impmon made a catch for both of the goblets but made the mistake of not realizing that there was garden gnome at the bottom of his fall. He hit the gnome and made a gunt of pain.

"Impy!" I shouted scooting Leon into the house. I run inside, change back into human form and run outside with Leon in my arms. The purple rookie gave me a look.

"Next time, gift cards." I scooped him up and took him inside. I placed Leon in the play pen, locked it twice, and tended to Impmon's bruise.

"Well," I grabbed some ice and gave it to him. "I don't think you are going to die." I smiled at my joke and made my husband smile while shaking his head.

"I don't know doc, it really hurts." He changed back into his human form and pointed at it. With his skin tone you could see a bruise was starting to form. "See?"

"I think I know the perfect medicine." I chimed kissing him on the forehead. He grinned.

"Much better," He wrapped his arms around me and I sat on his lap. "Toots, he is gunna get himself hurt if he keeps this up."

"I know..." I looked sad. Leon was so adventurous, he couldn't help it.

"At least we have on good chil-" Ian began beaming but lost his smile as he and I stared at an empty chair where a certain one year old was suppose to be.

"Oh no." He began. I climbed off him and called out Iris' name. I looked around the room starting to feel panic set into my skin. I saw Ian run to other parts of the house while I looked into the dining room and the play room where Leon was occupied with his Legos. I met back up with Ian.

"Anything?" He asked breathing heavily. His eyes darted around the room and I shook my head.

"Ok, maybe she-um. Maybe she learned some powers." I started to reason grabbing my cell phone and started to dial Rika. The voicemail was heard after the first ring. I cursed and phoned Mako.

"Hello?"

"Hey, Mako I need you are you busy?"

"Lindy? You ok?" He sounded concerned. I usually don't ask him for anything unless it's really important.

"Iris might have developed some kind of power. I was wondering if your D-Ark might work for her as it did for Leon."

"Maybe, can you swing by?"

"Yeah, I can." I hung up and turned to Ian.

"I'm going to see if I can track her. Stay here in case she pops back here."

"Yeah, I'll keep an eye on Pyro over here too." He nodded his head. "We will find her let's not freak out yet."

"Yet." Our eye met. We were freaking out.


	3. Chapter 2

Chapter Two

I ran out the door and with enough concentration I changed myself into Hopemon. It had been awhile since I was my child like Ultimate form but with a burst of energy I somehow gained I teleported to Yuki and Tai's house where Mako was waiting outside. I hugged him and told him what happened so far. I was not too keen on changing into my human form in embarrassment. I looked way better as a Digimon right now.

"Hey Lindy, here is the D-Ark." Mako showed me. He had grown into a calmer, studious young man. "Is Iris ok?"

"I think she learned how to teleport." I said taking the device and pressing through some buttons. I still did not know how this damn thing worked but hopefully it could show me where she is.

"Already? Lindy she's barely one!" Mako said shaking his head. "Leon is just developing his powers now. Are you sure you two didn't miss a room?"

"I'm sure!" I replied annoyed. "I would know-" I felt my phone vibrate and it was Ian.

"You found her?" I asked before saying anything else.

"She's fine." Ian replied in a relieved voice. I let out a breath of air. Thank God. "Come home. Isn't Rika coming over soon?"

I widened my eyes. Almost in ten minutes time. How the heck did two hours fly by so fast? I hung up and gave the D-Ark to Mako. He held my arm.

"Hey...Did you want me to babysit sometime? Ai and I haven't seen the little rascals in awhile and you and Impmon could use a little breather. We all noticed how stressed you are lately."

I paused and shifted uncomfortably. "You would do that for us?"

"Lindy! Of course!" Mako cried and I cringed. "We are partners to you guys! That means the kids as well! God knows how much you took care of Ai and I when we were children. We are still your family too."

I felt a prang of guilt. Of course Mako and Ai were family to me. They were my partners after all. I gave my life for them. It was silly to think they wanted nothing to do with us.

I nodded my head. "How about tonight?"

"Sounds good. We can be over for six." Mako smiled. "You might be a mom, but you are not a superhero."

I hugged Mako. "I know. Thanks for reminding me."

I teleported back to our home and changed into my human form. Inside I saw Ian trying to put out a fire on his shirt and I ran over to help him take Iris off his arms while he scolded Leon.

"Ian, where hell was Iris-"

"Leon you are going to stop setting me on fire or I swear to God I'll"

"Ian!"

"Toots! She was here all along! LEON!"

"How could she have been here!"

"SHE WAS IN THE CUBBARD!"

"WAHH!"

"Doing what?!"

"Eating those damn-LEON! puffs."

"I told you-"

"SHE WASNT EATING!"

From the shouting and moving, I did not realize that Iris did not receive her burp and she had this reputation for being a bit of a puker. Especially if she was startled and moved around a lot.

With all things considered, there was Leon trying to set us on fire-demanding for the goblets back, Ian yelling at me about watching Iris better, me yelling at Ian telling him to give me Iris, Ian yelling at Leon for setting him on fire, and me trying to figure out where she was. My husband had a bruise on his head, clothes charred, somehow Leon was still wearing his Luigi suit, and I looked like I rolled out of bed.

Which is why when Rika busted through the door Iris seemed to silence everything when she puked on all three of us. All the peas and carrots and puffs that Ian must have been feeding her behind my back went on our faces, clothes, and hair.

Silence. Not even a pin drop.

Rika stood there mouth open-probably horrified at the sight of us. Our family. Burned, puked, and at each other's throats.

I slowly let go of Ian and looked at him. It came out softly like a giggle but for some damn reason I laughed.

And soon Ian laughed, I was holding Iris who was gurgling and since we were all laughing Leon must have started to laugh too. I thought I saw a flash but I shook my head.

"This is..."

"Us." Ian mentioned looking at all of us. "This is us toots. Get used 'ta it."

I hugged my daughter tightly. I looked at Rika.

"Well, were here!" I smiled. Rika nodded and cast her violet eyes at us.

"And I thought you guys were crazy to begin with. Would you like to-I dunno clean up?"

I paused. She must think we are all deranged laughing while covered in vomit. I shook my head.

"When you have kids."

"I think you officially got me off the idea of children." Rika frowned but put on a little smile. "You two are nuts."

"Damn straight." Ian replied.

"Damn swaight." replied Leon nodding.

I burst out laughing again.

Chapter Three

A few hours later, I was cleaned up, rested and fed. Ian had cleaned up as well and Rika had watched the kids. She was quite good with them as they behaved well. (Renamon was there as well so that helped out.)

Rika showed us the photo she took of all of us in that crazy family portrait. I nodded my head.

"It's perfect." I spoke softly staring lovingly at the picture. Ian glanced at me wearingly.

"But it's not what you wanted toots. I thought you wanted the color coordinated crap." He placed an arm around my wait. I drew in to rest my head on his shoulder.

"Impy, our family is crazy, full of not so prefect things. I don't want to be like another family. This is us. You can tell just from that picture."

"Just making sure toots. I don't want to hear you complaining after we keep it." Ian warned me. I stuck out my tongue.

"Not this time."

"We good?" Rika asked getting ready to leave. She had to go see Jeri to prepare for the wedding photos coming up soon. I nodded.

"It's perfect." I repeated. "Thank you."

Rika told us to call her if we needed anything. Even babysitting. Ian laughed at the thought of Renamon trying to control his kids.

Our family photo is propped up on the wall when you first walk in, with the chaos and the love and the laughter waiting for you to step in. Sure, we are not your traditional family but we love each other and will never give up.

I think that's well worth it.

The End.


End file.
